


Perfect Catch

by GumbaBunny



Series: Sea Shenanigans [4]
Category: Dead by Daylight (Video Game)
Genre: M/M, Mermaid!Jake
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-09-14
Updated: 2020-09-14
Packaged: 2021-03-06 23:47:54
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 3,397
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/26463643
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/GumbaBunny/pseuds/GumbaBunny
Summary: Michael didn’t feel like anything was wrong with him, but his parents think otherwise. His father takes him fishing in an attempt to “fix” him, but there he meets Jake.This is a collaboration with Smoll Jake on tumblr, I write and she does the art! Please send her love!https://smoll-jake.tumblr.com/
Relationships: Michael Myers/Jake Park
Series: Sea Shenanigans [4]
Series URL: https://archiveofourown.org/series/1776802
Comments: 8
Kudos: 78





	Perfect Catch

**Author's Note:**

> All art is made by Smoll_Jake! Please give them credit and love for making these wonderful pieces on tumblr!  
> [Smoll_Jake](https://smoll-jake.tumblr.com/)

Emotions were something that Michael had to force himself to feel, like digging through a closet and trying to grab something in the back but failing. He rarely expressed anything at all, even at the young age of 8. 

Ever since he could remember, Michael had never felt a thing. His family was not the best, but he felt pings of love or care for them occasionally. His father was always busy with work or hanging out with his friends, so he hardly interacted with him besides eating dinner together. His older sister really only cared about herself, and always called Michael weird or strange. 

However, he felt closest to his mother and younger sister. Though his mother was busy with keeping the family afloat, she always tried to make time for Michael. He enjoyed helping her make food or taking care of Cynthia. His younger sister was only two, but already a bubbly child. Because Michael had no friends and did his homework at school, he spent a lot of time with her. 

Michael didn’t feel emotions, but he did care about his sister. He felt slight emotions of happiness when he was with her, when she smiled at him or said his name, or really did anything. 

Feeling those were still hard though. Judith always told him how creepy he was, and something was wrong with him. She was the one who caught him smushing bugs to death with sticks or other objects. Michael found it fun and enjoyable, nothing wrong with it at all. 

Judith had ran to their mother and dragged her to see for herself. She watched in horror as Michael ripped a worm in half with his hands and looked up at the two like this was normal. 

“Michael! What are you doing?”

He was never the kind to speak much, but he could tell she was upset with him. “Worms.” Michael told her quietly, not knowing how to explain. He held a severed part out to her, but seeing her disgusted expression he pulled his hand back and gave her a questioning look. 

“See, mom! I told you! He’s not normal. He’s weird!” Judith said in a “i-told-you-so” tone of voice.

His mother dragged him inside and talked to him for hours about how that wasn’t a good thing to do, and no one did that. He shouldn’t kill innocent things like that. 

“Why?” He had always asked. Michael never understood what was wrong with killing. 

She gave up and went to his father where they talked for a long time. Michael stayed with Cynthia and kept her entertained while mother was away. She always loved games they could play together, like drawing, hide and seek, tag, and anything else of the sort. 

He wasn’t in the mood to play. He was in trouble, and didn’t know why. What would they do? 

Cynthia hugged him without warning and patted his back lightly. “Mikey!” She said happily, clearly trying to cheer him up as best as a 2 year old could. He hugged her with one arm and closed his eyes. Michael realized he had worried his sister in that moment. 

“I’m ok.” He told her quietly. Cynthia was the only one he really spoke to, and even then it wasn’t much. She smiled at him as if everything in the world was better and dragged him to the couch, jumping on it and hopping up, then flopping on the cushion. 

Michael sat beside her and pulled out one of her favorite books and began to read it to her quietly. When he was half way through, he heard his parents leave their bedroom and walk down the hall. He stopped talking and looked up to see them looking at him concerned, but caring. 

“Michael, would you like to start fishing with me?”

It was a strange request. Totally out of the blue. Was he not in trouble? What did fishing have to do with this? Despite this, he did want to spend more time with his father. He nodded firmly, which seemed to relax them a bit. 

“Well, uh, our next fishing trip could be tomorrow, if you’d like?” Michael could tell his dad was very awkward. He hardly spoke to any of his children and probably had no idea what Michael liked to eat. He just nodded again, then turned his attention back to Cynthia. 

It was late. He wanted to put her to bed before 9:00 so he could go to sleep as well. By the time he finished the book, she was knocked out. Michael carefully set the book aside and picked her up, carrying her to her bedroom. 

She, Michael, and Judith shared a room. They were not well off. Michael knew this because the clothes he wore were dirty and not “fashionable” like the other kids. His house constantly had problems, and he found getting running water was a hassle. Despite this he enjoyed doing things to help out. 

He set Cynthia down in her old crib that he, and most likely Judith also used. Michael latched the sliding part to keep her in and turned off the light after pulling a blanket over her. Michael climbed into his bed which was a broken old bed and curled up under the covers. Judith was talking on the phone in the living room to someone. He ignored the muffled conversation and fell asleep. 

It was Saturday. His father woke him up early with an uneasysmile. “Mornin’ Michael. Get ready so we can go fishing.” Michael just nodded and slid out of his bed. He grabbed his clothes and went to the bathroom to brush his teeth while changing into his new clothes. 

He refused to look at himself in the mirror, opting to stare at the sink as he brushed his teeth. It was rare he ever looked at himself. He hated it. Any time he saw his face he wanted to rip it off and put a new one on. 

Michael gripped his toothbrush hard and set it aside. Maybe fishing would be fun, or something he could look forward to for once. He walked to the living room to see his dad packing up a strange looking tool box. He looked up and hummed at Michael. 

“Ready to go?” Michael nodded and walked outside to their family car. His dad had a friend who let them borrow their boat. It was a fairly expensive one, but not too over the top. Michael sat in the passenger seat staring out the window.

Before he knew it, his dad was parking the car at the dock. Michael got out and went straight for the boats, looking at each one as they sat tied to the dock. Michael already slightly enjoyed this as he heard the bobbing of the vessels gently slap the water. 

His father walked beside him towards his boat. “William named it ‘Daylight’- you can see it on the side there.” He pointed to the medium-sized boat. It was a fishing boat for sure, but it had a strange flat backend to it where it was hardly above the water. 

Michael didn’t care to listen to his father telling him everything about the boat. What year it was made, what model, how fast it could go, anything. He climbed on board and his dad put a life vest on him. 

“Maybe later we can take you with my friends. That’d be fun huh? Father son time?” His dad said with an awkward smile. 

Michael stared up at him and shrugged with a blank expression. He would rather do it with just his dad, but then again if he went with his dad’s friends he would most likely be ignored the entire time. Michael sat down and stared down at the dark water. 

He heard it was privilege to live so close to the ocean, only a few minutes from it. Really, it wasn’t. They got so many storms, flooding, and prices were crazy. It was always hot. Michael wanted to see snow once and a while, or even chill. 

When his father pulled out and began to speed through the waves, Michael felt a thrill he hadn’t felt ever. It was cold, loud, and energetic. The waves constantly made the fishing boat jump, and they went up and down like a rollercoaster. 

Michael found it fun to turn his head. When he looked forward, the wind was deafening against his ears, but when he looked sideways it was almost silent. Strange. He definitely enjoyed this, though. 

After a few minutes, his dad stopped the boat and walked over to him. “Alright! We are ready to fish. There’s a lot of stuff, but basically you put the bait onto the hook-“ His father had grabbed a fishing rod and was holding the hook between his fingers. “-like this.” He stabbed a worm through it. “Then cast it out.” He watched his father expertly cast the line many feet away. 

Michael grabbed a smaller rod. He wanted to stab the worm. To his dismay, they were dead. He put the work on the hook and threw it out, but instead of it going out, it went straight down. 

His dad chuckled and showed him how to properly do it while demonstrating. It took a few tries, but Michael got it out a few feet. 

“Theres a lotta fish you can catch out here. Tuna, Carp, Mackerel, but then ya got some harder ones like sharks, herrings, bass, and even merman.”

Michael was only half listening as he watched his line slowly move through the waters. While it was boring, he found slight happiness in doing this. Not much, but he could feel something. 

He didn’t catch anything for a few hours. Michael learned there were different types of bait, and found they had varying results. Worm? Nothing. Putting a dead fish on his hook? Works like a charm. He had snuck one of his fathers smaller catches onto his hook and cast it out and reeled up a catfish. 

The thrill he felt when he felt his rod tense up and move as it nibbled them bit it was like no other. It was better than killing worms. He pulled up, then reeled in as his father coached him. As the fish surfaced, his father got a net and scooped it up. It was massive and flopped around. He had caught a catfish though. 

Michael almost smiled. 

He sat down and watched it slowly suffocate to death while his father put it in a freezer. Why was killing worms bad, when his father, his father’s friends, and other fisherman killed fish like this with no regard?

When it was noon, both of them got hungry. His father called it a day and drove them back home. Michael was, no pun intended, hooked on fishing. He wanted to go back, and told his father this. 

Cynthia was thrilled to see her bigger brother return. She ran and hugged his leg while babbling nonsense as his mother and father talked about something. Michael picked her up and hugged her. 

“So.” His father said and quietly clasped his hands together. “You want to fish again Michael?”

Michael gave him a nod and walked off to go play with Cynthia. He did have to catch up on playtime. 

For the next month, his father took him fishing every weekend or after school if Michael did good. He got better, but still wasn’t amazing at it. Michael caught at least one fish a day, but they were mainly big ones like bass. 

However, on a more cloudy day, he caught something different. Michael hadn’t changed bait- he was still using his fathers small catches, but the pull he got almost sent him off the boat. 

His mind raced to shark, so he began to reel. He no longer needed help from his father, so he only glanced over to check on him. 

Michael watched his fishing rod bend in a U shape as he fought the fish at the end for a long time. Then, it stopped struggling. Did the line break? Did he lose the catch? Michael kept reeling while staring over the edge. 

To his surprise, a human popped up. They looked up at Michael, green eyes meeting his blue with slight rage. Michael had never been surprised before, and this was a complete shock. He saw his line trailing into the persons mouth, and his hook stabbing through its cheek.

It hissed at him and opened its mouth while trying to yank it out, making it bleed more and cause more pain. Michael could see it had a slight green tint to it- and its hands were webbed. It was some kind of fish human, and was not happy. 

Michael glanced at his father, who was preoccupied with his own rod and newspaper. He walked to the lower end of the boat, tugging the line as he did. The thing followed while holding the line at a distance so it didn’t pull his cheek more. 

He was interested to say the least. Michael set the rod where his father told him they left rods to go to something else- and that no fish could yank it out of that hold. 

Does he watch it suffocate? What does he do? It was glaring at him and clearly scared while both trying to find ways to get the hook out. 

Michael grabbed some pliers and sat close to the edge, the fish human only feet away. He showed the pliers to the fish person, then pointed the pliers to his own cheek and jabbed it in a bit. 

It blinked and thought for a while before swimming over. Michael swore he saw a tail instead of legs. It grabbed the low end of the boat and glared at Michael, but didn’t do much else. He scooted closer and quickly grabbed the hook with the pliers before the fish human could react. 

It made a strange noise in shock, and its hand grabbed his wrist in fear. It was very cold, and very wet. Michael looked at it in an almost admiring way. His hair was black and sticking to his face- if anything he looked like a normal person. 

Michael carefully snipped the hook in half, and he watched with fascination as the other spat out the hook and line and instantly went back into the water. 

He sat down, holding the pliers for a while and just staring. What was that? Did he do the right thing? Was it human? He stood up and grabbed his fishing rod and showed his father. 

“Whoa! What bit that hook?” He said surprised. Michael wanted to tell him what he saw, but he also felt he shouldn’t. Like this was a secret. He fixed up his rod, and grabbed some worms as his father hadn’t caught anything small again. 

Michael sighed to himself and looked out of the side before throwing a worm in. He then stabbed another worm to his hook. 

Just before he cast his line, he looked down to see the fish human chewing something, with only his head out of the water. Michael stared, before waving silently to it. 

He could not describe what he felt when he saw it wave back as well. Michael tossed him another worm, staring at the bleeding wound on his cheek. It looked bad. If he was human, he would be around Michael’s age. 

It dove under and ate the worm before coming back up and tilting its head at Michael. He tilted his head back. Did it understand English? Either way he didn’t want to talk. 

He opened his mouth and pointed at it, then to the fish human again. It seemed nervous before nodding. Michael threw it another worm, and this time it caught it as it fell like one would throw popcorn into the air and catch it. 

Michael was about to toss another when his father stood up. “Are you wasting the worms, Michael?” And walked over. Michael made a ‘shoo’ or ‘hide’ motion to the fish human before shaking his head to his dad, who looked over the edge. 

He glanced over to see nothing as though it had never been there. Michael looked up at him and handed him the worm bucket. His dad sighed and took it. “Lets call it a night. Tomorrow we can go fishing with my buds if you want to come?”Michael nodded. 

When he got home, he instantly went to Cynthia’s room and doodled what he imagined the fish human to look like. He drew the messy black hair, green eyes and green tail with webbed hands. He hid it after showing Cynthia and focused on playing with her. 

That night Judith had brought a boyfriend over and were being loud. Michael had to let Cynthia sleep in his bed to keep her asleep since she kept waking up every five minutes. 

He hardly wanted to get out of bed in the morning, but he looked forward to fishing. Especially after yesterday. Michael touched his wrist where the fish human had and shook his head, clearing his thoughts. 

Michael got up and got ready despite sleep tugging at him the entire time. The sun was hardly rising, and he was in the car within minutes. After a month of this routine, he didn’t need to talk to his dad. They were just ready at the same time. 

This time though, he wouldn’t be alone. Michael oddly hoped the fish human was safe. He didn’t want him to get caught for some reason. He looked up to see his dad greeting his three friends and them clasping hands and patting backs roughly. He walked beside them silently. 

“So we got a little man joining us today?” One of them said. “Yep! He’s pretty good at it too.” His father replied. Michael could already tell he would be bored today, but there was nothing else to listen to than four grown men talk about whatever. 

Most of it he didn’t understand. He sat inside the boat staring at his line, silently listening to the men make jokes and talk about random stuff. When they got a catch, they would talk about fish, root for that person as the reeled, and celebrated no matter the fish. 

He was glad he didn’t even get a nibble. He didn’t want that attention. Michael rested his head on the side of the boat and closed his eyes. 

Michael woke up to the boat harshly rocking to one side, and all of the adults tone of voice were different. “Is it a shark? What did ya catch???” “Do ‘ou think its a merman?”

He rubbed the side of his face that got a mark from how long he was sleeping there. Michael sat up and watched his father reel in a mako shark. 

For once they talked about something interesting. 

“Aw! Imagine if it was a merman though. I’d split the money with you all and we would be set for life!” His dad chuckled. 

Bill, the eldest, piped up. “That’d be nice, I mean- How do ya think I’m here now?” 

“You never told us you caught one?” They all said together. 

Michael was interested. What was a merman? And set for life? He looked forward at the water but listened intently as Bill dragged his story out about catching a merman, fighting it the entire time and selling it when he was 20 for a hundred million dollars. 

Something went for that much money?

What shocked Michael the most was when he described it. A human torso with a fish tail. 

He felt stupid. The name “merman” had ‘man’ in it. Michael thought it was just some kind of weird fish name like the ‘Wahoo’. He had caught a merman- which would ‘set them for life’. 

Michael may be young, but he wasn’t stupid. He knew they were very low on money. If he could catch a merman, he wouldn’t have to worry about anything anymore. He wouldn’t have to worry if Cynthia ate or not, she could go to school with good clothes at his age, and live a happy life. 

He just needed to catch it again, but this time kill it.


End file.
